Let me start by saying The Firing Line has given me excellent advice in the past and I'm sure this will continue in the future.

History: I recently purchased an M1A Standard and absolutely love it, but I have one problem. Nothing to do with the weapon, but probably more so me. First of all, Let me give some background. I have been around weapons and hunting my entire life. I've been in the Army for 11 years and know how to sight in a rifle, know about breathing techs, trigger squeeze, sight picture, etc and am a pretty good shooter. I took my M1A Standard and M1A SOCOM to the range today. I have no problem zeroing in my SOCOM, but my Standard is a different story. I am getting really good groupings (half dollar to quarter size), but my problem is my rear sight aperture is all the way down and my round is impacting center and about 8 inches low. Is there anything else I can do? If I aim high I can hit near bulls eye, but that would include me placing the bulls eye in the middle of the front sight post. I have always placed the top of the front sight post center mass (bulls eye). If I could bring the rear sight aperture down about 6-8 clicks I would be dead on.

Anyway, is there any advice out there????? I am going to buy a scope for it in the near future, but not being able to zero it is bothering me. I wish the front sight post could raise and lower. It can't can it? Are there any after market front sight posts out there which can?

If you have any advice please send it my way. I really appreciate it and if you have any M1A scope recommendations I would love those also.

Sorry to state the obvious but you move the rear sight in the direction you want to move the group. If you get an acceptable group but it is 8" low, raise the rear sight, easily done with the click elevation knob on the m1A. In this case, try raising the rear sight 8 clicks at 100 yds and see what happens...if not enough, keep raising it until you hit the desired point of aim. Had you said it was shooting high, that might require you file down the front sight when your rear sight is grounded. In this case, shooting low is easily solved.

Some people set their m1 to shoot with a 6 o'clock hold at the bottom of their sights adjustment so they have the most adjustment for longrange shooting (600 ad 1000 yard).
Sounds like what you got.
easy fix.
1 replace sight
2. weld on sight and file grind back into shape.

It is my understanding that if my impact is low, by lowering the rear sight aperture my impact will rise. Maybe I'm just having a brain _:<>? I thought I saw this in the TM. If not, thank you for correcting me.

Ditto to what most have said - you move your rear sights in the direction you want to go..........it's the front sights that you move in the opposite direction.

Your sight elevation adjustment should have number marks next to the little hash marks on the "wheel" (mine has the even numbers labeled, with the odds un-numbered). Put that #1 hash mark on the notch of the sight and you should be pretty close- at least on mine it's a 6 o'clock sighting "X" at 100yds.

For what it is worth, those numbers are "Supposed" to correspond to bullseye distance to target in meters - i.e. the 1 is for 100 meters, the 2 for 200meters, the 3 for 300 meters, etc, etc. But your mileage may vary from that by a click or 2.

Well I have to say that ive got the same problem high to the right i think its me but its just been doing this recently, It might be the guns age its a vet got it from my uncle when he passed. Ive moved the signs down up left and right and keep getting the same grouping.

pvt.Long - if yours is truly an old gentleman, it's possible your rear sights could be loose. They can wear with time and cause some issues. The long toothed piece that holds the peep can develop wear in the teeth and side to side wobble as well.

pvt.Long, Something to check is the screw on the elevation knob. Hold the knob with pliers and tighten the screw. Also crank up the elevation then try to push the peep back down with your thumb. If it moves then tighten the screw slot on the "Windage" knob. It moves about 1/4 turn per slot.
This type of thing always seems to happen at the worse possible time.

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